After Elon Musk said that he would buy Twitter for $44 billion, another well-known person said that they would be leaving the social media site.
A number of users, including Whoopi Goldberg and Ryan Reynolds, made the announcement that they would be leaving the site just a few days after the company’s new CEO took over leadership of the company. Captain Sully, a brave airline pilot, has now been added to the list.
The 71-year-old pilot who became famous when he miraculously landed a plane with two broken engines and saved the lives of all 155 people on board said in a recent tweet, “To my friends on Twitter, I will be taking a step back from the platform for now.
“Connect with me on Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram to stay informed and hear my latest personal and professional updates.”
To my friends on Twitter, I will be taking a step back from the platform for now.
Connect with me on Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram to stay informed and hear my latest personal and professional updates.
— Sully Sullenberger (@Captsully) November 9, 2022
His departure comes in the wake of Musk’s decision to introduce a host of new features to the social networking app. One of these new features is the option for users to pay $8 per month for a Twitter Blue subscription, which would let them buy the coveted blue checkmark.
This was all done in an effort to bolster Musk’s desire to rid Twitter of fake accounts and bots; however, the move to introduce Twitter Blue has been a complete and utter failure. A lot of people have paid for the subscription to get the blue tick, and then they’ve made fake accounts in which they pretend to be well-known brands and tweet crazy things.
One person even made a fake account for Eli Lilly, a company that makes insulin, and tweeted the following: “We are excited to announce insulin is free now.” According to Mashable, the fake tweet caused Eli Lilly’s stock to drop by 4.5% in a matter of hours after it was posted, even though it was done in jest.
There were problems with accounts that were pretending to be those of other large corporations, such as the defense manufacturer Lockheed Martin. This fake account tweeted that the company would be stopping the sale of weapons to the United States, Israel, and Saudi Arabia. After that, there was a big drop in stock prices, which caused the market capital to drop by several billion dollars.
Twitter Blue erased a few billion in market cap for Lockheed Martin pic.twitter.com/RsMBfRyhO1
— litquidity (@litcapital) November 11, 2022
As a result of the fallout, subscriptions to Twitter Blue have been terminated since then, and many users of Twitter can’t help but make jokes about the ridiculous situation. For example, one person wrote: “The man really bought a site whose users have basically turned every single thing into comic performance art since it launched and demanded that they all take him Super Seriously, what did he think was gonna happen?”
The man really bought a site whose users have basically turned every single thing into comic performance art since it launched and demanded that they all take him Super Seriously, what did he think was gonna happen?
— Shiv Ramdas Official Boye Mafia Spokesman (@nameshiv) November 11, 2022
Whoopi Goldberg, Toni Braxton, and Ryan Reynolds are just some of the celebrities who have recently left Twitter. Captain Sully and a few others have also left. Captain Sully switched to Tumblr.
“I’m shocked and appalled at some of the ‘free speech’ I’ve seen on this platform since its acquisition. Hate speech under the veil of ‘free speech’ is unacceptable; therefore I am choosing to stay off Twitter as it is no longer a safe space for myself, my sons and other [people of color],” RnB icon Braxton tweeted.
I'm shocked and appalled at some of the "free speech" I've seen on this platform since its acquisition. Hate speech under the veil of "free speech" is unacceptable; therefore I am choosing to stay off Twitter as it is no longer a safe space for myself, my sons and other POC.
— Toni Braxton (@tonibraxton) October 29, 2022
Following the widespread firings at Twitter, which included the entire human rights team, supermodel Gigi Hadid also deactivated her account on the social media platform. “I deactivated my Twitter today. For a long time, but especially with its new leadership, it’s becoming more of a cesspool of hate and bigotry, and [it’s] not a place I want to be a part of,” Hadid wrote on an Instagram story.
As a result of the fact that Musk has already reversed his position on his Twitter Blue subscriptions, many of us are now left wondering how the subsequent weeks and months will play out. However, if the widespread firing of employees and the proliferation of fake accounts are any indication, things are not looking good for the platform.
